“What are we first? First, animals; and next
Intelligences at a leap; on whom
Pale lies the distant shadow of the tomb,
And all that draweth on the tomb for text.
Into which state comes Love, the crowning sun:
Beneath whose light the shadow loses form.
We are the lords of life, and life is warm.
Intelligence and instinct now are one.
But nature says: 'My children most they seem
When they least know me: therefore I decree
That they shall suffer.' Swift doth young Love flee,
And we stand wakened, shivering from our dream.
Then if we study Nature we are wise.”

— George Meredith

St. 30.
Modern Love http://www.ev90481.dial.pipex.com/Meredith/modern_love.htm (1862)

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George Meredith 45

British novelist and poet of the Victorian era 1828–1909

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